Good friends and good food

We have had an amazing 9 days in Paris that actually felt like a little holiday and real 'break' after four long months on the road. The timing was perfect on the last day to meet up with our good friend Nico, who is on a year long break travelling the world. He invited us to stay with his aunt and uncle in a little town called Marines for a little more recuperation. We were treated like family by Roxana and Valentin who cooked up delicacies of confit duck with beans from the garden, spinach pie with handmade pastry crust and a most delicious moussaka all meals accompanied with wine and followed with cheese.

Paris

Our first day and we get stuck riding in the madness that is peak hour. Stampedes of maxi scooters racing off at the lights, pedestrians in stilettos oh so chic stepping carelessly from the curb and cars everywhere! Add to this protestors, police in full riot gear and sirens blasting wow we are in Paris.

Walking through the 6th arrondissement on a Thursday evening. We peeked in to art galleries packed with Parisians. Then all of a sudden a impeccably dressed man with a entourage of 4 came walking round the corner. We step to the side just in time to realise "oh my god thats Karl Lagerfeld" were else but Paris.

Bonjour

We have just arrived in Paris.

The first puncture

Good and proper
No not us, our first puncture! After almost 4000km Miriam got this 2 inch nail in her rear tyre so we kept it as a souvenir.

France

We made it to France today. In Lille at the moment heading straight to Paris.

In Bruges

Ok so we knew nothing about Bruges which was our first mistake.
After nearly being run off the road by
the crazy drivers we found a hostel
to stay at as the weather had turned. In the hostel they had a city guide for young people that had things to see and do.There was a quote from the movie 'In Bruges' (which neither of us had seen) "if I grew up on a farm, and I was retarded Bruges might Impress me. But I didn't, so it doesn't." I thought this was quite strange especially in a book for tourists, but after two nights in the city I tend to agree. Bruges didn't do it for us because it didn't seem real. I kept expecting to see something cool or quirky but all we found was one big tourist trap.
We didn't hate Bruges, it was very beautiful, but If you want to visit a city built on tourism I'd go to Prague least the beer is cheep.

North sea route

After leaving Rotterdam we took the north sea cycle route south towards Belgium. The highlight was riding across the man made Dykes, they were kilometres in length with a cycleway across the top.
The last 10kms into Bruges followed an avenue of tall trees planted alongside a canal. This made for a very scenic ride and a lovely entry into Belgium.